Why is Christmas celebrated on December 25th?

It’s not in the bible. Who started this tradition anyway?

It wasn’t until the 4th century when Constantine converted the whole Roman Empire to Christianity that Dec. 25th became the day when Jesus’ birthday was celebrated. The Romans still wanted to keep their party-hardy pagan holiday of Saturnalia (celebrating Saturn the god of agriculture and harvest) and the winter solstice (celebrating the sun god) so, the Christian Church decided to use that date to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Jesus was probably not born in the winter. The shepherds tend their flocks in the fields between April and October.

However, it is rumored that the wise men (astrologers from the East) saw the star and arrived in Bethlehem when Jesus was a few months old to a year old and that conjunction of planets and a star that led their way happened on Dec. 25 in the 2nd or 3rd Centuries.

But it seems that today’s society is tending to go back to the pagan origins. They still want to party-hardy and they forget that we’re supposed to celebrate the birth of God’s greatest gift to us – Jesus our Savior.

There are Christians who won’t celebrate Christmas because of its pagan origins and it’s not in the bible. But why not?
There’s nothing wrong with giving gifts as long as they are given in the spirit of love.

There shouldn’t be anxiety to get everyone the right gift or to give someone who gave you something and you didn’t have anything for them.

Personally, I think Jesus’ birthday should be celebrated in August. He may have been born then and August has no major holidays!

But who’s going to fight traditions that are over 1600 years old? As long as we remember that “Jesus is the reason for the season” there’s no harm in celebrating it on Dec. 25th.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ~ 1 John 4:9-10

2 thoughts on “Why is Christmas celebrated on December 25th?”

I too would like to switch the date of Christmas so that the spirit of pagan religions and materialism could be divorced from religion. Will it happen? No, but as we drift farther and father, I expect that one day Jesus will have no part in Christmas.